Billie Eilish

Top of the pops: The biggest songs of 2019

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Billboard released its list of the biggest songs of 2019, and I’m ashamed to admit I’ve only heard about 1/5 of them.

Someone once said that no new music will ever be as good at what you listened to when you were a teenager. Given that my teenage years were filled with Green Day, Smashing Pumpkins and Soundgarden, I gotta say that’s probably true.

Post Malone
Post Malone: Proof you can succeed in America with face tattoos.

I’m nearing the point where I can legitimately say, “I don’t know what kids are listening to these days.” But I’m not quite there yet.

Though it was slightly terrifying to realize that Ariana Grande sampled “It Makes Me Ill” by *NSYNC in her song, “Break Up with Your Girlfriend.” Artifacts from my youth are now kitschy throwback references. Yikes.

See if you can answer these questions about the 5 biggest songs of 2019, according to Billboard.com:

  1. Inescapable for most of the summer, what breakout country-hip-hop hybrid caused controversy when Billboard removed it from the country charts?
  2. Rappers Post Malone and Swae Lee had a huge hit with their collaboration “Sunflower,” which was a featured song on what animated film’s soundtrack?
  3. Ashley Nicolette Frangipane is expected to release her third studio album in 2020. The first single from that effort, “Without Me,” was the No. 3 biggest song of 2019. What is Frangipane’s stage name?
  4. Billie Eilish took over pop music this year with her debut album, “When We Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?” It produced six Top 10 singles, including this song, the only one that hit No. 1.
  5. Post Malone had a very good year: Which song with a palindromic title followed by a period was No. 5 on Billboard’s list?

Answers up after “Truth Hurts” by Lizzo, which was the 13th biggest song of the year, according to Billboard. I call bullshit on that ranking. Honestly, tell me another song in recent memory that gave us a line as instantly iconic as “I just took a DNA test, turns out I’m 100% that bitch.”

Answers:

  1. “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X featuring Billy Ray Cyrus
  2. “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse”
  3. Halsey
  4. “Bad Guy”
  5. “Wow.”

More music trivia: Songs with a guy’s name in the title